Snake, Thy Name Is Lion
by WeatherWitchandMetalMage
Summary: Snake- thy name is lion.
1. Of Beginnings and Would-be Endings

**Snake, Thy Name is Lion **

**Chapter 1/? **

**Author: **LexiLyman 

**E-Mail: **LexiLexi19@hotmail.com 

**Category**- Angst/Darkfic, Mystery, Action/Adventure, Drama 

**Keywords: **Leaena, Slytherin, Gryffindor 

**Rating: **PG 

**Spoilers: **PS 

**Summary: **Leaena Rafferty is an eleven-year-old loner off to Hogwarts with a stomach filled with fear and a head filled with expectations. But her expectations don't tend to include a vicious dead girl, disappearing students, and two hundred and seventy-eight point five enemies. What a way to start off at a new school! 

**Disclaimer: ** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. 

* * *

        "Mum! I'm back!" came the high-pitched voice that followed the sound of a slamming door. 

"You've got two owls!" shouted the blond Mimosa Rafferty in a strangled voice while jabbing the air with her wand fervidly. The sink in front of the tall witch began to spout water that smelt strongly of nail polish remover all over vivid yellow robes. 

A wiry figure entered the doorway, picked up the two envelopes off the table and strode out with a glance at her bumbling mother.

"Oh bloody boomerangs! That child will be the end of me! Struttin' off like she owns the bloody world without a care to her own bloody ma standing here getting all covered in bloody nail polish remover!" grumbled Mimosa while trying to stop the torrent of foul smelling water. 

Stomping footsteps could be heard above Mimosa's head. The girl burst into her room. It was a flood of colours and sounds and belongings. Leaena flung herself on her single bed and stared up at the ceiling. It was very pretty; her dad had enchanted it for her. Swirls of colour shifted from blue to green to yellow to orange to red and through all the colours of her old Crayozard master box of coloured crayons. 

Leaena sat up and looked across the room at the standing mirror. "Oh, Leaena Sen, dear. Do try to smile for once," declared the mirror. The girl in the mirror was ten years and 11.5 months old, respectively. She had chin length strawberry blond hair and grey eyes. Her thin face simply scowled. 

Everything about Leaena was rather pointy. Her nose, her chin, even her ears were a bit pointy. The points in her ears were not due to any elfin relation, they just were that way. Even Leaena's personality was pointy. Actually, it was more on the side of sharp and nasty. She would have closely resembled a muggle version of an elf but for her sour expression. 

Leaena turned away. She carefully split the first envelope. It was a warning from her half-brother, Vulcan, off in China studying ancient scrolls. 

_Leaena, _he wrote in a spidery script, _Stop being an arse. Mum says you've turned into the ice queen again. Quit it, or you'll be hated in Hogwarts. Vulcan. _

"Hrmph. Looks like Vulcan's going to be recruited for the divination squad," muttered Leaena while opening the next letter. 

"Oh. Hogwarts. I thought so." Leaena walked downstairs and shouted into the kitchen, which looked like several earthquakes and floods had managed to wreck havoc on the kitchen. She shouted the news to her mother, who was up to her elbows in what looked like dishtowels and rubber spatulas. 

_Wonder if I should help mum out, _thought the girl, _She seems pretty stressed and with all that mess to clean up… What am I thinking? …. I've got to get to Diagon Alley and get my stuff._

Leaena fully expected to be in Slytherin. Though her father was a Ravenclaw and her mother was a Hufflepuff, she was nothing like either of them. Her mother didn't think well of Leaena, she made it no secret. Leaena was too insensitive and spiteful. Her father was always out and about, working on this or that for the Ministry, so he never really knew his daughter. Leaena had no real siblings, but Vulcan was as close as it got. Vulcan's father divorced their mother when Vulcan was very young. He was raised half and half, but now since he graduated he had been off studying in foreign countries. Vulcan was a Ravenclaw, but he didn't think she was too bad. But then again, he didn't think she was too good either.  

The ten-year-old raced up the stairs and into her room. She rooted around in her closet, dodging packs of playing cards that seemed to be intent to shuffle themselves on her head and various other chess pieces and enchanted action figures. Finally Leaena unearthed a safe. She pulled it out of the noisy, jumping pile and whispered the password. The safe popped open. Inside were piles of galleons, sickles, and knuts. She grabbed quite a lot of money and shoved it into her little rucksack, covered in wild Arabian stallions that whinnied silently and tossed their great manes. She shut the safe and buried it under her belongings again. 

Downstairs again, she posted the sticky parchment note for her mother on the inside of the kitchen door and headed toward the den. The deep red room was full of cushions and chairs. The fireplace stood waiting with the mooing cow cookie jar full of floo powder. The fire was already roaring in the fireplace. Leaena paused for a moment, staring at the fire. An uneasy expression seemed to flit across her face, but it was gone too quickly to be sure.

"Diagon Alley!" shouted Leaena. She ducked out of the fireplace easily and set off to the middle of the road. She stood in the middle of a whirl of bustling shops and fascinating witches and wizards. She set off alone toward Madame Malkins to get her school robes. Measured and fitted, Leaena set off down the road again, stopping at the broom shop. 

_Pity I can't fly._ _Some of those look really nice. _*Pause.*_ Also a pity that I couldn't care less about it, _she amended fiercely. 

She ducked inside the shop to have a look around. The brooms shone glossily under the lights, their twigs perfectly in place, except the ones in the corner marked **Used Brooms. **Leaena walked idly around the store. A tall girl with brown hair and grey eyes approached her. 

"Hi! Are you a first year? I'm in third. I'm Allison McKay, who are you? Are you muggle born or pureblood or what? I'm half and half. What house do you think you'll be in? I think I'm in Gryffindor. I think that sounds by far the best! Sorry, did I offend you? Sorry if I did! Do you like to fly? I do, I play Quidditch with my sister at home. Do you have any siblings? I've just got my sister, May, she's twelve and in Ravenclaw. Why are you being so quiet?" said the girl, friendly and fast. 

"You were talking so fast no one could ever get a word in otherwise," answered Leaena, unconsciously cold. 

"No need to be so mean about it. I don't think you're a very welcoming person," said Allison McKay, sounding put out. 

Leaena flinched slightly. "My mother told me not to talk to strangers," she retorted. 

"You're not nice at all, are you? I bet you'll be a SLYTHERIN!" exclaimed Allison, turning pink with dislike. 

"Is that the worst insult you can think of? I'd advise using a thesaurus. Try fiend, wicked, and idiot to begin," said Leaena. 

Allison flounced off to her friends who whispered intensely with their backs turned. Leaena sighed. It seemed that she was incapable of making a good impression. Leaena walked quickly out of the store and into another to buy her books. She got in line after a brown haired sixth or seventh year whose armload of books was a great deal larger than the usual amount needed. Her companions, two boys, one redheaded and the other black haired, joked around while balancing their piles, significantly shorter than the girl's. 

"Do you really _need _those books, Hermione? Or are they just _light reading_?" asked the redhead sarcastically. 

"I think they're paper weights. Right Hermione?" said the black haired one. 

"For really, _really _big papers," put in the redhead. 

"Shush, the two of you," said Hermione. The black haired boy turned around to face Hermione and so showing Leaena his face. And, more importantly, his scar. _Harry Potter_! Leaena almost dropped her books. A tap on her shoulder broke her gape. She whirled around. A blond boy flanked by a crowd of rather nasty looking people gazed at her. 

"What?" she said. 

"I'm Draco Malfoy, kid. We saw you in the broom shop, putting down that Hufflebrat. What's your name?" 

"Leaena Rafferty," replied Leaena. 

"Rafferty, Rafferty… Ah, yes. Any relation to the International Relations' Grayson Rafferty?" 

"My father." 

"Yes. We think you're Slytherin material, firstie. Care to come shopping with us? We're going to Knockturn Alley. Not a problem for you, is it?" 

"What's the catch?" 

Draco Malfoy chuckled. "This one's Slytherin to the bone, my friends. No catch, Rafferty," he drawled with a smirk. 

Before Leaena got to answer, the trio in front of her whirled around. "Recruiting, Malfoy?" asked the redhead sarcastically. 

"This one's already on board, Weasley." 

"Training a replacement already to lead your little clique while you're serving Azkaban? Or is that going to be another thug?" 

"She's far too short, Ron. Everyone knows you have to be very, very large to defend the ferret," said Harry. 

Leaena stared at the four very angry students. Fear, an unwelcome guest, boiled at the bottom of her stomach, making her feel queasy. The world swam in front of her eyes. Leaena's eyes flicked from person to person. She squeezed her eyes shut. _I am not afraid. I am not afraid. I am not afraid_, she repeated cyclically. _I am not afraid. _

The four rivals traded verbal onslaughts and insults for quite a while, but Leaena didn't hear them. Her focus was on that treacherous knot of fear that was expanding threateningly. Leaena then did what she always had done. She ran. She shoved her books on a table and ran out of the store into the street outside. She ran from the anger of three who had hated her because someone else accepted her, from the anger of the cold boy with silver hair who had a cruel smile, from the threat of fear lingering in her stomach. She couldn't run from the fear. She could never run from the fear. 

Leaena ran into the first store she saw, regardless of the name. She stopped short and her breath came in great gasps that she tried to stifle. Still breathing heavily, she stood straighter and looked around. She was in a dusty, crowded room, but instead of being crowded by people, she was crowded by hundreds upon hundreds of long, thin boxes. There was not a human to be seen. The air was dense and heavy with dust. 

"Miss Rafferty." A quiet voice that sounded like it hadn't been used in a while came from a shadow a person that had appeared in the back of the shop. "You have come for your wand, I think." 

Leaena nodded silently. The shadow came in to focus. He was a tall, skinny man, silvery and chilling. 

"Leaena Rafferty. Let's see… try this one. Heartwood and unicorn hair. No? Maple and phoenix feather. No again. Birch and dragon's heartstring. Ah yes. Excellent, that would be fifteen galleons." 

Having paid the man and bought her wand, she set out again, careful to avoid anyone from the bookshop or from the broom store. Leaena bought the rest of her supplies and ducked into a used bookstore to buy her schoolbooks. She didn't want to meet Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, or Draco Malfoy again. 

Leaena went home. Avoiding her mother's questions, she threw herself on her bed, staring at the ceiling. And, like that, she drifted off to sleep. 

The next few days consisted of nothing for Leaena. She hid in her room, trying to deny the fear of the students she had met in the bookstore and broom shop. Soon September came. She packed her trunk, her stomach tumbling and rolling in her stomach. _Gonna be fine. Fine. Fine. Will be okay. Okay. Okay. _She thought to herself as she methodically folded her robes. 

"Leaena! Come on, time to go!" called her mother. 

Mimosa stomped upstairs, waving her wand at Leaena's trunk and directing it downstairs. Leaena sat on the bed cross-legged and watched this. "Leaena! Hurry up! Lets go!" 

The two of them went into the borrowed car. Mimosa grumbled as she read a piece of parchment with directions. "Lets see… Okay, I've got it… No wait…" came the mumbling of Leaena's mother as they inched slowly toward King's Cross. Mimosa dropped Leaena off, not stopping to take her in. "The traffic," she protested, but Leaena knew why. "Bye Ena. Owl me once you get there." Leaena nodded silently. She loaded her trunk onto a trolley and pushed it along to station 9. Allison McKay with a tall man with black hair and a girl with blond hair who must be her little sister, May McKay, disappeared through the wall. Leaena backed away for a minute. She then walked through into station 9 ¾. 

She blinked, and when she opened her eyes the steaming red train filled her line of vision, rimmed by laughing and talking families. Owls squawked in their cages while cats meowed at mice and rats and parents kissed their children goodbye. Within this vortex of sound and happiness, Leaena stood in front of the entrance, her trolley in front of her, with no one to say goodbye to or to tell her where she should go or what she should do. Her face didn't change. It was perfectly expressionless, her grey eyes scanning the crowd. 

She stood there silently for a few moments, biting her bottom lip and trying to decide what to do, feeling very reticent indeed. She walked hesitantly toward the giant train toting her trunk behind her. She winced as she tried to get her trunk up onto the train, feeling herself turning pink as she stumbled and lugged the black and silver trunk onto the compartment. It was empty. All the compartments were, she could see as she gazed through the open doors. Leaena sat down in the corner, her back up against the v-shaped bend in the wall. Her pale hands lay in her lap, tangling them with themselves and untangling them in turn. She scanned the compartment nervously, flinching whenever she heard a footstep. 

Leaena didn't notice as footsteps came into her compartment, she was too busy convincing herself that she wasn't afraid of them. 

"Rafferty. Nowhere to run now." 

It was Draco Malfoy from the bookstore, flanked by two hulking boys. Leaena slowly met his eyes, shrinking back slightly as she met his amused and unflinching gaze. 

"You never did answer my question, Rafferty." 

Leaena didn't change expression, but her mind was flurrying. What to say? What to do? Leaena feigned a nonchalant expression and shrugged.  "Alright, Malfoy. I'll try it." 

Draco Malfoy smirked. "Okay, kid. Follow me. No Slytherin sits _alone _on this ride, too many idiots walking around." He whirled around and walked out. When discovering Leaena wasn't following, he turned to glare at her. "Come _on, _Rafferty!" Leaena followed hesitantly. 

They entered a compartment filled with smirking boys and self-satisfied girls, all making cracks about 'those idiot Huff 'n Puffs', 'those smart alecky Ravenbeaks' and 'that git Potter', and 'bloody Gryffs'. 

Draco Malfoy stood silently in the compartment until it quieted. "This is Leaena Rafferty. She's that firstie who told off the Hufflebrat in the broom shop. She'll be joining us." 

He motioned for her to sit down, and he walked over to where his cronies were sitting. Leaena looked around; trepidation replacing what was left of her breakfast. She gingerly sat at the end of an isle seat next to a girl a bit older than her. 

"Leaena Rafferty?" Leaena nodded. "I'm Janus Acheron. My family is worth millions of galleons. How much is yours worth?" bragged Janus. 

Leaena felt uncomfortable and shrugged. Janus stuck her petite well-bred nose in the air, ignoring the first year. Leaena spent the rest of the journey in uncomfortable silence. 

The train stopped and the older students chatted their way toward their waiting carriages, while the other first years followed the big and burly Hagrid toward some boats. Leaena got in a boat with Janus Acheron and two other Slytherin bound students. 

She followed the others, trailing behind slightly, as they ascended the stairs and walked in. Leaena didn't listen while the tall Professor with a stern expression and equally stern bun informed them about the school and the houses. She was concentrating on the floor. The stones seemed to fit perfectly, without any space between them. She could see that the surface had been worn smooth with the thousands of feet of children and adults over the years. Suddenly she jerked. Janus Acheron had poked her. Everyone was going in. Leaena quailed at the thousands of eyes on the procession of small students clad in black. She wasn't listening during the sorting, nor at the hat's song. She stared instead at her shoes, which were black and shiny, and at the floor, which wasn't quite as smooth as it was in the hallway. 

"Rafferty, Leaena!" the harsh voice broke through the haze of consciousness that Leaena was wandering through. She walked in trepidation toward the hat. She put it on her head and sat down, squeezing her eyes shut. 

_Leaena, Leaena…. Now this one is interesting. Already on it with those Slytherins, hmm? Well, you certainly have the disposition for it. But what is this? My, my, Leaena, do try to calm down. Lets see. A complicated child, you are. Also quite a loner. You _do _have an interesting future ahead of you. I see quite an unhealthy dose of fear, and you are not a very sympathetic child. Hmmm…. _

_Slytherin, Slytherin! _Thought Leaena. 

_Slytherin? Perhaps…. But I think not. No. Definitely not. Better be _**GRYFFINDOR!!! **

**A/N **

            And here we embark on our journey through Hogwarts and through Leaena Rafferty's slightly deranged mind. Thanks to: Isis for Beta-ing, Mummy and Daddy dearest for stopping their rants (at least toning it down a bit) so that I could hear myself think, You-Know-Who-You-Are for You-know-why, and to all the other cool people that helped out with everything (even you, Rissa). Oh yeah, and thanks to school, because it didn't give me _too _much homework! Next in Snakes and Lions: The beginning of two hundred and seventy nine enemies and Leaena's first day with them. 


	2. Of Further Beginnings and Ghosts

**Snake, Thy Name is Lion**

Chapter 2/? 

**Author: **Sasha Soap

**Category: **Angst/Darkfic, Mystery, Action/Adventure, Drama

**Rating: **PG

**Spoilers: **I only think PS, but all to be safe.

**Summary:**Leaena Rafferty is an eleven-year-old loner off to Hogwarts with a stomach filled with fear and a head filled with expectations. But her expectations don't tend to include a vicious dead girl, disappearing students, and two hundred and seventy-eight point five enemies. What a way to start off at a new school!

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. 

* * *

            Gryffindor? _Gryffindor? _No, there had been a mistake! Leaena couldn't have gotten into Gryffindor. Not in a million years. She had already made four Gryffindors hate her in the last few days! She was scared of everything! How had she gotten into _Gryffindor?_

            Leaena stood up numbly, putting the hat back on the stool. The students were clapping, but she could see that there were exceptions. The entire Slytherin table was silent, as were Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. Leaena walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat between two empty seats. She stared at her plate, feeling the glaring eyes of the Slytherins on her back and hearing to furious whispers of Allison McKay and the famous trio. Leaena studied the table throughout the school song, Dumbledore's speech, and the feast. She didn't eat anything.   

            "First year Gryffindors! Come with me!" Hermione Granger shouted at the table of children. The nine other students jumped up promptly and went to follow the prefect. Leaena followed more slowly. She was five steps behind the other students as they followed the brown haired seventh year through the unfathomable number of twists and turns of the castle. 

            They finally came out in front of a portrait of a stout witch in a pink dress. "Rivera," said Hermione Granger, and the portrait swung open to reveal a comfortable scarlet room. Hermione stood outside the opening, waiting for each student to proceed in. Leaena was last. 

            "So you're a Gryffindor instead? I'm sure Malfoy is disappointed. Sorry about that!" said Hermione, not sounding nasty, but Leaena interpreting it that way.

            Leaena frowned at her. "I don't need your pity, Granger. Go bury yourself in your books, or whatever it is you do for fun." As soon as the words left her lips, she regretted them.

            Hermione raised her eyebrows at the fierce kid glaring at her. "Well then. God forbid someone waste their time being nice to you." 

            Leaena didn't change expressions, just sauntered past her into the common room. Hermione grimaced and muttered something about the Sorting Hat losing its touch. 

            In the first year girls' dormitory, Leaena and four other girls picked beds and unpacked. None of them really felt very tired. Leaena sat on the bed that was farthest from the others and surveyed her classmates. They didn't even glance at the small girl cross-legged on the bed with her strawberry blond hair falling onto her thin face. There were four others besides Leaena. They seemed to already have become best friends forever, leaving the icy girl who was obviously meant for Slytherin secluded in the room. There were two Irish girls, Kasie O'Brien and Margaret McHenry on one side of the room. Margaret was jovial and plump, with dark hair and brown eyes and freckles. Kasie was small and compact, red headed and green eyed, with fair skin. The other two were British, Lila Hones and Jacqueline Weston. Lila was average height with tanned skin and slanted black eyes that sparkled with excitement. Jacqueline was an elegant, thin girl whose shiny, dark curls were pulled into a flawless ponytail.

            Leaena seemed not to exist to these four happy children. She was not there, a fly on the wall, that was not to be noticed. The four others jumped into bed and dissolved into excited chatter, that slowly drifted into deep slumber. Leaena continued to sit on her bed staring into nothing. She didn't know afterward how long she sat there, but eventually she slid out of bed and donned a robe and slippers, and crept out of the dormitory and downstairs. The rosy comfortable room was dark yet warm. Leaena took a deep shuddering breath and quietly opened the portrait hole and dropped to the cold stone floor of the hallway. 

            "Stop!" shrieked the Fat Lady, "No students allowed out so late!" Leaena turned lithely to look at the portrait, her frigid grey eyes in a fixed stare that didn't relent and her thin pale face that didn't so much as twitch from it's perfectly expressionless look. The Fat Lady would remember the gaze of this young rogue who snuck out. All the others simply smiled or winked at her, while this one looked like she was deciding whether to shred her portrait or set it on fire. The Fat Lady ran to the back of her painted room. Leaena turned slowly and walked away. She walked like a cat, padding softly over the stone hallways. She did not know where she was going, and neither did she care. She suddenly found herself in the Great Hall. Leaena walked to the middle of the huge room and stared up at the ceiling. It was as dark as velvet with stars painfully brilliant in the enveloping darkness. The silver moon shined a cold brilliance on Leaena's face. So preoccupied was she that she did not notice another's presence in the ancient beauty of this timeless sky and antediluvian room. 

            Another little girl, looking younger than Leaena, stood silently beside her. She was tiny, emaciated, looking like she hadn't had food in a very, very long time. Her dark hair was down to her knees and curled in softly shining ringlets falling into her flawless translucent face that was too gaunt and far too clever. She was clothed in a ragged white nightgown that was in the style of the dark ages or close to then. Her austere grey-green eyes were much too large in her face and worldlier than the usual child of her age. Leaena turned swiftly to stare down this skeletal waif. 

            "Who are you and what are you doing here?" she asked sharply and swiftly, her voice racing through the syllables, hoping that they would not reveal her fear. She assessed the child silently and suppressed a gasp. Her nightdress was splattered with blood. 

            The child gave Leaena a condescending gaze. "I am whoever you think I am, my _friend_." 

            "All I think is that you're a little kid who's stumbled into Hogwarts out of the Forbidden Forest." 

            "Really? Than why can you see right through me, _Leaena_, or what ever the bloody hell you call yourself?" said the girl in a wintry voice. 

            Leaena could indeed see right through her. Through the bloody dress was the outline of the windows of the Great Hall. Leaena started to shake. The little girl raised an eyebrow. "I am Vivienne, daughter of Gryffindor."  

           "Gryffindor? As in Godric?" 

           "No," said Vivienne with irritation, "As in my father, Ilion." 

"Is IlionGodric Gryffindor's son?" 

"Yes." 

"So you're a ghost." 

"Yes." 

"That's normal." 

"I suppose."  

They stood in uncomfortable silence. "How old are you?" 

"I believe around one-thousand and nineteen." 

"No, how old were you when you died?" 

"Eight."  

"How'd you die?" 

She glared at her. "I was murdered, oh brilliant one."

"No need to be rude about it. Did you go to Hogwarts?" 

"I died at Hogwarts. But I was only eight."       

"So how did you die?" 

Vivienne stepped back, looking at the silver moon with an odd look on her face. 

"_Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, _

_War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it; _

_Making it momentary as a sound, _

_Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, _

_Brief as the lightning in the collied night_." 

            "Wait, what?" asked Leaena bewilderedly. She had known many ghosts through her life, and this one, however strange, was not atypical as far as transparent qualities and enigmatic manners go.  

"_A father's only daughter doth slay a foe. _

_All liked the slain foe whom none knew was such_

_Yet none liked the daughter _

_The foe of the daughter doth slay the father as a ghost_

_Only then the father shall know of his daughter's fidelity _

_But too late he ascertained the verity_

_The daughter had been so youthful, not yet nine _

But she died at the hand of those who had known her since forever 

_She is mewed by this castle and doth not come out_

_Lest one she distinguishes a child whom she knows is found _

_She is incarcerated for time immemorial" _

            Leaena looked uncertainly at the blood-splattered child. " Well _that_ was a happy bit of rubbish, but you don't know me." 

            "Don't I? How do I know your name?" 

            "The sorting ceremony. You watched it." 

            "No I did not. I don't come out of my room unless I recognize someone." 

            "Where?" asked Leaena shakily, her blood chilling in her veins. 

            "Where do I recognize you from? I'll show you." Vivienne spun on a bare heel and glided out. Leaena followed her unconsciously. She tried to stop, but couldn't. She began to become panicky, breathing unsteadily and shivering. Leaena walked behind Vivienne, noticing that she had a bloodstained hole in her back. Leaena was used to ghosts, but this one made her uneasy. 

            They proceeded to walk through a part of Hogwarts Leaena had never heard of from anyone or seen pictures of in any book on Hogwarts she had ever read, which wasn't saying much. It was completely furnished with extremely antiquated and crumbling furniture. There were tapestries and paintings on the walls and once-rich carpets, now threadbare, on the floors. 

Suddenly Vivienne turned into a long hallway that was filled with portraits. Leaena followed. Vivienne was standing at the end of the hall, looking at a painting that was edged in an ornate gold frame. Leaena came up next to her. 

The painting was of two little girls, one about eight and the other around eleven. The elder was fair and the younger dark. The brunette one was eye-catching and very charismatic. She wore a dark jade velvet dress that brought out the green in her eyes. The fair child was plain, not ugly, but not lovely either. She wore a plum coloured dress that did not suit as well as it could. Both were too petite for their years, and too thin as well. But neither of them was as emaciated as Vivienne, however. The fair-haired one was standing next to the dark haired one's chair. They were situated in a rich cream coloured room with navy trimmings. They did not move, which startled Leaena far more than anything as far as resemblance goes. Vivienne moved her hand across the painting, leaving a streak of clearness along the grime.

Vivienne pointed silently to the gold label underneath it. Vivienne Morgana Gryffindor and Persephone Gwen Slytherin around 1000 A.D., precise date unknown. In most legends, Vivienne is associated with death, and Persephone with life. __

            Vivienne looked at Leaena silently. "That is me," she said, pointing at the picture of her, "And that is you."  

            Leaena looked at Vivienne, startled. "It is not! It is not! She died about a thousand years ago!" Vivienne merely looked at her. And looked at her, with enormous jade coloured eyes. Leaena withdrew at her indefatigable gaze.

Suddenly a grey coloured shadow rounded the corner. Vivienne whirled around and put out her hand as if to grab Leaena, but her long, thin fingers went right through her living acquaintance. Vivienne swore colourfully and ran across the hall into an open doorway. "Come, fool!" she hissed at Leaena. Leaena looked past Vivienne's ghost into a rich emerald room that was once idyllic but had the quality of a magnificent palace depreciated to a ruin filled with decrepit furniture, it's owners long dead. The bloody child sitting on an archaic four-poster bed with her heavy dark curls lifting slightly from the night gust from the window looked like a picture from Leaena's new History of Magic textbook. 

She shivered involuntarily and turned away, running as if from a certain death. Or, in Leaena's case, running from one who was dead. Leaena ran and ran and ran, paying no attention to the portraits and hangings that adorned the wall and pointed and whispered in low voices about the running girl. She stumbled on a piece of obtruding floor, crashing to the stone below. Her knees and elbows bled onto the cold stone floor that suddenly did not seem as smooth as it had earlier in the day. Leaena gave way to frightened tears. She cried for the dead girl who was killed by those she had thought as friends. She cried for fear of Mrs. Norris, the cat that could call Filch from anywhere and get her expelled or in huge trouble. She cried for the pain in her neck, in her back, the ripping pain when she tried to breath the cold air, for the pain in her knees and elbows and hands that were covered in her blood. She cried because it was hopeless for her not to get in trouble, what with the blood on the floor and her loud sobs that she couldn't stop. She cried for the Slytherin house and the hate in the eyes of all that saw her. She cried for hate of the Sorting Hat who started it all. She cried for want of her home. She cried because her mother didn't say goodbye with any thought. She cried mostly, though, because it was late at night and she was cold and tired and scared and she didn't know what to do. Leaena was crying so hard that she didn't hear the approaching footsteps. A redheaded girl knelt down besides her and patted her back. 

"There, honey, what's wrong? Surely nothing is that bad. What's wrong? Why are you out here?" Leaena looked up into kind brown eyes, tears still pouring down her pale face. Red hair surrounded a freckled face that smiled kindly. Leaena glared at whoever this blurry figure that dared see her break down was. The figure backed away. "I'm Ginny Weasley. You're Leaena Rafferty, right? Hermione Granger said something about you. So did my brother. And a girl named Allison McKay. And Allison's sister, now that I think about it. You're quite the talk of the house. Why are you out here?" 

Leaena grimaced as she moved slowly to her feet. " I was taking a stroll. Night air you know. Does wonders. But you look like you need sun more than moonlight."  Leaena, still feeling weepy, walked toward the portrait of the Fat Lady that she just noticed was a few feet from where she was. Ginny Weasley looked at her thoughtfully as she walked up to the Fat Lady. "Password?" Ginny couldn't help but smile as Leaena realized she didn't know. "It's 'Rivera'." Leaena glanced at Ginny and with as much dignity as she could muster announced: 'Rivera' and climbed into the common room and fled to the safety of her bed. 

Ginny Weasley looked at a portrait next to the Fat Lady and asked wordlessly. The portrait of a regal man in red shrugged. "The lass came runnin' in here as if the ghost of Christmas Past was after her. Tripped and went fallin' down and started sobbin'. Dunno what was wrong with the poor chit." Ginny nodded her thanks to the man and went back up to bed; hearing a muffled sound of foot against trunk and furious cursing that was very creative behind the first year door. The redhead raised her light-coloured eyebrows and went back to bed. 

Outside the common room, the portrait of the regal man watched approvingly as a small wraithlike child cleaned the blood off the stone. 

The next morning Leaena was the last one out of bed. She looked around, and seeing no one, bolted out and lunged toward her clothes. She yanked a brush through her fine hair and pulled on her shoes hurriedly, finally rushing down to breakfast. She stumbled into the Great Hall and collapsed into an isolated chair, her face turned down to the glances of hostile students. Leaena reached over to a bowl of eggs and spooned them out onto her plate. She ate silently and fast, rushing through the eggs and juice before hurrying back to her room because she had forgotten her books. She bounded the stairs, trying to ignore the bubbling feeling in her stomach. Once in her room, she opened her trunk's heavy lid and began to dig for her books. Her fingers closed on a leathery spine and she heaved it out, various objects tumbling from the path of the volume. She repeated this over and over, rooting through cloth and other possessions and lifting out her schoolbooks. Once out, she packed them into a tube shaped bag and stood up, the carpet leaving her cut knees aching. 

Her first class ever was History of Magic. She had no idea where that was; unfortunately, and knowing what it is and where it is are two completely different things. Very, very different things. She wandered completely lost through the maze of hallways and stairwells until she found herself right where she started. Luckily for her, she started very early and would not be too late. She followed Kasie, Margaret, Jacqueline, and Lila at a surreptitious distance, hoping that at least _they _knew where they were going. Her first class. Leaena hoped that it would be at least a bit better than her first day. It wasn't. 


End file.
